Exploring Internal Body Zones (Zonas del Cuerpo). Video 2. Chest and Seventh Zone.

Working with Chest and Seventh Zone (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

This is the second of a series of posts where I expose videos (recorded by me) showing the acting exploration of different Body Zones (Zonas del Cuerpo) and combinations of them.

Those who already know about González Caballero's acting method will understand what I meant with Zonas del Cuerpo, but those who don't know anything about this acting method maybe it is better first to go to this link and take a little look (it is in Spanish): http://agcmetodo.blogspot.com/2007/04/el-apoyo-zonas-del-cuerpo-el-cuerpo.html.

The process of this exploration is very simple: in front of the camera, and only my face, I must work in the inner concentration of one Body Zone (Zona del Cuerpo), with different levels and positions within the same zone, then I combine it with another zone (in this case the seventh zone, known as the crown, the only one with which all zones in this exploration will be combined).

As the only thing exposed on screen will be my face, no other part of the body will react to the impulse coming from the concentration on the body zone, only the face.

These videos are also part of my Butoh Vlog (http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.com/p/gustavo-thomas-butoh-vlog.html ) therefore it is important to clarify that I'm not listening to any piece of music during the explorations or recordings, nor any movement within the space will be the goal (as it is in Butoh). Even when that could mean for someone that it would not be Butoh, I still considered this exploration as part of my training in this discipline because I'm working with inner images and impulses with muscle movement as reaction of it, and that's one of its principles.

I believe the results (and the process itself) of these explorations will be very interesting for those who want to follow them, watching, studying or carrying out the exploration as well. For myself I'm opening another door in my own acting work, and I'm sure it will be the same for others who want to venture into this acting method and its infinite possibilities for exploration.

Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (Oct 22, 2011): Internal Body Zones Training Part 2. Chest and Seventh Zone. (NO SOUND)

 from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.
Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (Oct 20, 2011):

Internal Body Zones Training Part 2: Chest and Seventh Zone.

Working with Internal Body Zones (Zonas del cuerpo). This time working with Chest and Seventh zone, the crown (Zona del pecho y séptima zona).
Diferent positions concentrating attention inside the zone. From intensity in low level till climax and back to low level.

This is part of a daily training, I don't have any aesthetic goal in doing it (even when using a video effect or choosing a particular part of that training).
This is a document of my daily artistic life.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Exploring Internal Body Zones (Zonas del Cuerpo). Video 1. Sex and Seventh Zone.

I'm starting a series of posts where I expose videos (recorded by me) showing the acting exploration of different Body Zones (Zonas del Cuerpo) and combinations of them.

Those who already know about González Caballero's acting method will understand what I meant with Zonas del Cuerpo, but those who don`t know anything about this method maybe it is better first to go to this link and take a little look (it is in Spanish): http://agcmetodo.blogspot.com/2007/04/el-apoyo-zonas-del-cuerpo-el-cuerpo.html.

The process of this exploration is very simple: in front of the camera, and only my face, I work in the concentration of one Body Zone (Zona del Cuerpo), with different levels and positions within the same zone, then I combine it with another (in this case the seventh zone, the crown, the only one with which all zones in this exploration will be combined).
 

As the only thing exposed on screen will be my face, no other part of the body will react to the impulse coming from the concentration on the body zone, only the face.

These videos are also part of my Butoh Vlog (http://gustavothomastheatre.blogspot.com/p/gustavo-thomas-butoh-vlog.html ) therefore it is important to clarify that I'm not listening to any piece of music during the explorations or recordings, nor any movement within the space will be the goal (as it is in the Butoh). Even when that could mean for someone that it would not be Butoh, I still considered this exploration as part of my training in this discipline because I'm working with inner images and impulses with muscle movement as reaction of it, and that's one of its principles.

I believe the results (and the process itself) of these explorations will be very interesting for those who want to follow them, watching, studying or carrying out the exploration as well. For myself I'm opening another door in my own acting work, and I'm sure it will be the same for others who want to venture into this acting method and its infinite possibilities for exploration.

Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (Oct 20, 2011): Internal Body Zones Training Part 1 (NO SOUND) from Gustavo Thomas on Vimeo.
Gustavo Thomas Butoh Vlog (Oct 20, 2011):

Internal Body Zones Training Part 1

Working with Internal Body Zones (Zonas del cuerpo). This time working with Sex and Seventh zone, the crown (Zona sexual y séptima zona).
From intensity in low level till climax and back to low level.

This is part of a daily training, I don't have any aesthetic goal in doing it (even when using a video effect or choosing a particular part of that training).
This is a document of my daily artistic life.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Ibsen and the Beauty of Rome. Understanding Greek Tragedy and Art.

Detail of Tragic Muse Statute at Vatican Museum

Ibsen like many other Scandinavian and European artists from the 19th century, found in Rome the inspiration for their art and their idea of beauty and depth in art. Reading Michael Meyer’s Biography of Henrik Ibsen I discovered a letter to his friend (and sometimes enemy) the writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, describing his favorites pieces of art in the eternal city and his reaction after observing them.

Ibsen lived in Rome during his 30s in a kind of auto-imposed exile, and wrote several of his most famous plays during those years in Italy. Being known that he wasn’t used to read books (any kind of, he only read newspapers) this stay was for him more than a general view of the classical art world, it was the visual reading of all the classics in literature and theatre through sculpture and architecture. Yes, as odd as it sounds.

Ibsen sent this letter to Bjørnson (dated January 28, 1864) confirming Bjørnson’s predictions that the playwright's stay in Rome would gradually become attuned to classical art and sculpture.

I’m posting the whole extract of the letter from Meyer’s book and also some photographs (from different sources on internet) that’ll help visualize those works Ibsen is talking about.


"Its beauty (…) grows more and more on me, as you said it would. It comes in flashes, but a single flash throws light over whole vistas. Do you remember the "Tragic Muse" which stands outside the hall in the Rotunda in the Vatican? No sculpture here has yet been such a revelation to me. I may even say that it is through this that I have understood what Greek tragedy was. The indescribably calm, noble and exalted joy in the expression of the face, the richly laurel led head containing within it something supernaturally luxuriant and bacchantic, the eyes that look both inwards and at the same time through and far beyond the object of their gaze--such was Greek tragedy."

Tragic Muse (Vatican Museum)

“The statue of Demosthenes in the Lateran, the Faun in the Villa Borghese, and the Faun (of Praxiteles) in the Vatican (brachia nuovo), have also opened great windows for me into Greek character, and have enabled me to understand what imperishability in beauty really is. Pray heaven I may be able to use this understanding for my own work."

Demosthenes Statue (Vatican Museum)

Praxiteles' Faun (Vatican)

Faun (Villa Borghese)

"Michelangelo's Moses in S. Pietro in Vincoli I had not seen when I last wrote to you; but I had read about it and built up expectation which has not quite been fulfilled--however. I have only seen it once.

How glorious the landscape is down here; in both forms and colours there is and indescribable harmony. I often spend half the day lying out among the graves on the Via Latina or the old Via Appia, and think it an idleness but no waste of time. Caracalla's Baths are another place which holds some especial attraction for me (…)"

Graves at Via Appia

Caracalla's Baths

Maybe is only a curious information but maybe it could help to understand in a better way the work of this playwright and poet, and to better understand the man behind that work.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

A Performance In Carmona, Spain

 Gustavo Thomas during a performance in Carmona, Spain
(Digital work by Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

These are some photographs, digital paintings and two videos from the performance Mary Jordan, Barrett Wissman and myself did in Carmona, Spain, during Ana Corbero and Nabil Gholam's anniversary party in September 25, 2011. 

We didn't prepare anything in advance (before arriving in Carmona), everything was arranged minutes before: Mary and I asked Barrett to play some intense piece at the piano, and we marked the starting and final movement of my displacement inside the open air pool, and that was all. 

Children were there and made feel their presence but that was interesting and almost challenging for all three. Of course the amazing Andalusian landscape we had as a background made our day.

I have to say that this was my first public performance (live) as a Butoh artist (Butohka as it is said), as everything I did before this day had been through internet and closed-door workshops. Curiosities of life.

Mary Jordan and Gustavo Thomas during A Performance in Carmona, Spain.
(Digital Work by Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Slideshow of A Performance in Carmona, Spain.

 

Video of A Performance in Carmona, Spain.

Video effect of A Performance in Carmona, Spain

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Hieronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Temptation of St. Anthony)

Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Hieronymus Bosch (El Bosco): TENTAÇÕES DE SANTO ANTÃO (Temptation of St. Anthony)


In September of this 2011 I visited the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (the National Museum of Ancient Art) in Lisbon, Portugal; a museum with one of the largest and most neglected collections of art, religious (Catholic) and universal art. Without dwelling on the sad conditions in which some of the works are on display at the museum I’ll go directly to the piece I wanted to share, "Temptations of St. Anthony" (Tentações de Santo Antônio, in Portuguese at the museum) by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch.

As a performing artist I am deeply attracted, in one way or another, to those works of art which "tell stories", and there is nothing I can do about that attraction, so I enjoy when I find those works and try to learn about them. Temptation of St. Anthony is nothing but a bright and brilliant visual account of the story of San Antonio’s temptations, on his walk to sanctity, yes, with the unique way that only El Bosco (Bosch) knew how to do, and thanks to it has become an icon of universal art.

I heard that Bosch, if living in our time, would be a filmmaker and I have no doubts about it, but I'm sure he would be also a photographer and a painter, he would continue to be so. His painting is a recount, without words, and through living deep images, of the moral and physical temptations of San Anthony; each stamp (image or action) is painted in an apparent chaos, but manage to tell stories, and requires little prior knowledge of the life the saint to understand them. Perhaps, if there is no prior knowledge, we wouldn’t know the very details of the historical truth of the man, but we’d know much more of his life, his own images and his inner struggle. Now in our times, surpassed the religious context of the sixteenth century, who cares if this is the story of San Antonio or another character? The piece itself is powerful, appealing, entertaining, well executed, it’s a genial work of art.

This painting is also “dramaturgical” (theatrical), in the sense that Eugenio Barba sees Dramaturgy: as an interweaving of actions, images that have meaning for the spectator.

With “Temptation of St. Anthony” photographs I’m sharing here you will be entertained enough (using the zoom maybe helps you more): with several of these passages, with its characters, with the contemplation of its colors, and with its special way of saying things to the spectator.

What for me is inevitable, watching a painting also as a theatrical piece, for you can be an enriching exploration of another point of view in art, why not trying it?

Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Detail of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Slideshow of Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

"Buy a dog, my lord"

Just a simple Ibsen's dialogue quotation from The Pretenders (circa 1863) which show, in my point of view, that ironic Ibsen of his later years. Even without thinking about the great author who wrote it, this is a charming point:

"Skule- (…) I must have someone by me who will obey me instinctively, believe in me unflinchingly, stand close by me through good days and evil, live only to give light and warmth to my life--someone who, when I fall, must die! What shall I do, Jatgeir?

Jatgeir- Buy a dog, my lord."*

* The Pretenders by Ibsen. From Michael Meyer's Ibsen's Biography. Double Day, 1967. Page 210.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson critic of the young Henrik Ibsen

The young Henrik Ibsen (1861)

The young Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1860)

 The young Ibsen was insecure, choleric and with a remarkable physical ugliness (at least in the point of view of many of his contemporaries), his personality was worthless for many, as Olev Arvesen writes about him when used to see him "entering L'Orsa's café punctually at two o'clock each afternoon to drink coffee and read the foreign newspapers", around 1858:

"That this man with the threadbare coat, old, soft mormon hat and profoundly unassuming mien would become one of Norway's and Scandinavia's greatest men was an unimaginable thought." (Michael Meyer, Ibsen's Biography)

But at the same time Ibsen owned a great talent for poetry, liked (and could) to write theatre and had the dream-ambition of being the greatest writer of Norway.

But around 1859, at 31, and in the beginning of his life as a playwright, theatre director and poet, he has not succeeded at all. That was the moment of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, who was the head of Norwegian young writers, tall, handsome and economically successful artist; it was him who Ibsen wanted to dethrone. The first fights (Ibsen’s attacks to Bjørnson) were charged of misunderstandings, jealousy and suppositions that only were in detriment of Ibsen himself. Yes, the greatest realist writer didn’t have yet that superb personality and speech what would characterize his last years of fame, a man full of cold wisdom.

After a small scandal with Ibsen’s piece The Viking of Helgeland, Bjørnson wrote a letter to Clemens Petersen elaborating a big description of the ambiance around Ibsen and a strong critic to him. It is curious for us today the remarkable tone of power as a writer and artist Bjørnson shows in that letter, more if we think of Bjørnson’s comments at the end of his life, all totally charged with bitterness and envy for Ibsen.

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson letter to Clemens Petersen. Bergen, 5 March, 1859:

"The play (The Vikings at Helgeland) hasn't succeeded, though it may seem from a distance to have (…) Ibsen has a little clique of admirers headed by Nyhedsbladet. But every time he has to face the general public everything goes wrong and I've had to go to his aid twice, because Ibsen despite his aberrations is a poet. And I hope some day to get him to be himself and turn away from all this damned pastiche. The day Ibsen admits he is small he'll become a perfectly enchanting poet. I've told him as much pretty plainly, but the result is, he's jealous. He's done all sort of little things to annoy me, and does still. He's angry that I haven't put The Vikings at Helgeland into my repertory. (…) I haven't read his poem 'Gull Cry'; I've heard it's rather affected stuff, and was written largely because Danish monthly said he was lesser writer than me. Now that's exactly the kind of thing that always distracts Ibsen from what he ought to be and do. The point is, he's rather small and gnomish little chap, with no chest or rump, so he feels that as he has no other gifts he has to strain most frightfully when he writes. And so he doesn't write what he'd really like to, and could." (*)


These are very harsh words, but most of them could be the truth, that was the young insecure and sometimes stupid Ibsen; but what a terrible game for Bjørnson because they now only talk to us ironically about his fall and his wrong appreciation of an ambitious man, who “despites his aberration” could become not only the greatest poet and playwright of Norway but one of the greatest of the history of the world.

 

* Ibsen Biography. By Michael Meyer. Double Day, 1967. Page 161.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

I work with... (Nijinsky)

Every day I'd like to work like this:

"I work with my hands and feet and head and eyes and nose and tongue and hair and skin and stomach and guts"

The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky. On Life. Page 44.

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain (2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

I've been out for some weeks and it's because I was traveling to Portugal and South of Spain. I went to Spain, to Carmona (near Seville), for a very especial event, the 15th anniversary party of my friends Ana Corberó and Nabil Gholam. Of course I won't talk about that celebration (that's a private matter) but I will share some photos I took of Ana's giant children sculptures.

I'd seen these sculptures when I was living in Beirut (2003-2005) but never with that amazing Andalusian valley as a background and in such quantity, more than 8 sculptures.

Ana Corberó realized these children-shape sculptures after her experience living in Beirut, a city full of contrasts and frame of many Israeli invasions and bombardments, the face of the children looking at the sky, looking at the bombers, was the inspiration.

I'm sure you will enjoy the images...

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero's Giant Children Sculptures in Carmona, Spain. (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Ana Corbero at her studio in Carmona, Spain (By Gustavo Thomas. 2011)

Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.

De sueño en sueño. A poem in voice and letters.

(Sorry, there is no translation of this poem yet)

De sueño en sueño

Image of De sueño en sueño

Y uno va así, de sueño en sueño, andando, saltando, volando,

viendo pasar la muerte de los otros en un rito incomprensible de cada noche,

de cada sueño, de cada sensación de letargo…

Uno va por ahí matando todo y a todos,

mira su tumba, la del amado, la del perdido, la del odiado.

Uno va de sueño en sueño rodando, con lágrimas que despiertan al otro,

con gritos que no dejan dormir,

y ese se sobresalta, y ese suda, y ese se levanta:

-está dormido- nos dicen, -déjalo soñar en paz, que está descansando-

Sí, uno va, de uno a otro, en una vida completa, entera, donde no más razonamos;

mitad de nuestra existencia o más, mucho más, que se siente plena;

una vida siempre más intensa, más amplia, más extensa,

y de ella sólo un vago intento de recuerdo,

un recuento que se difumina al hablarlo y en poco ya no lo recordamos…

Y sí, uno va así, de sueño en sueño, sin demora,

de sueño en sueño, con los brazos apretados, las rodillas doliendo y los dientes rechinando,

uno va, de sueño en sueño, palpitando hacia la muerte o hacia el sentirse despertando.




Gustavo Thomas
(Toronto, Canada. Septiembre, 2011)









Texts, photographs and videos in this Blog are all author's property, except when marked. All rights reserved by Gustavo Thomas. If you have any interest in using any text, photograph or video from this Blog, for commercial use or not, please contact Gustavo Thomas at gustavothomastheatre@gmail.com.